Times Internet buys majority stake in Taskbucks for $15 million

Tasbucks plans to use the proceeds to build out more ways for companies to leverage access to its five million strong and rapidly growing user base.NEW DELHI: Times Internet, India's premier digital products company and part of the Times of India Group, has invested $15 million to acquire a majority stake in Taskbucks, a mobile-only tasks marketplace that matches consumers with brands and enterprises on its unique platform.

"Companies offer tasks to consumers, who are rewarded for completing these micro tasks, via the Taskbucks marketplace," the two companies said in a statement Monday. Taskbucks is currently Android only, and has reached nearly five-million downloads without marketing, adding over one million new users each month virally. Taskbucks is ranked in the top 50 Android apps in India, according Google Playstore rankings. The company has set a target to cross 50 million downloads in the next two years, engaging millions of users with a variety of tasks they can perform to earn supplemental income.

Miten Sampat, vice president, Corporate Development at Times Internet, said: "Taskbucks is reducing friction in the connection between consumers and companies, in a way that drives value for both." Tasbucks plans to use the proceeds to build out more ways for companies to leverage access to its five million strong and rapidly growing user base.

"We will soon launch Taskbucks Pro, a premium version of Taskbucks where users can perform real-world tasks for brands, to earn more. We'll also be working closely with Times Internet to build our brand and drive growth of our mobile app," said Kumar Apurva, CEO and the founder of Taskbucks.

Taskbucks currently offers brands the option for app discovery, user retention, referral tasks, offer signups, and social content sharing, as promotions that they can offer consumers. It will soon add crowd-sourced tasks, surveys, opinion polls, offline photo tasks, and many other modules that will provide more variety and options for consumers and advertisers.